Elyose

While they were shooting their new video for their latest musical production in Paris, in early December, the group Elyose gave us a new interview... Here it is.

Hello metalheads; this is Pat Kzu, the drummer, who’s talking!

1. For those who do not know you, could you introduce your band?

Elyose was born in 2009, from the meeting between Juss, the singer, and Ghiss, the bassist. For the present band line-up, I’ve joined my two mates at the end of 2010, and Marc, our guitarist, whom I already knew, did the same thing three years later, so at the end of 2013.

None of us had an exceptional musical background, so Elyose has been the most important (or significant) thing that happened to us. We all come from the Parisian region, two of us from Paris itself, one from the western suburb, and one from the eastern suburb.

The band style is composed of a metal foundation, with electronic arrangements (however our composition can be freely modified without notice…). The singing was initially lyrical, but it has been less and less the case. From our point of view, one of the strengths of the band has been our various influences that we do not all necessarily share. Basically, each of us brings in a part of their universe and the Elyose music ends up being a kind of Fusion between all these worlds, where each one can be unknown to another.

2. To this day, what is your discography, including the videos, and who is your public?

Elyose has released two albums (Théogyne and Ipso facto) and a third is on the way (it’s currently being mixed). We have produced only one video, Rédemption, from Ipso facto, in 2015, which gathered a few dozen thousands views during the first year, until it accelerated wildly to push us through the million view milestone on September 9th, and it now has more than 1.6 million views. We are of course euphoric, and this is also putting some pressure on us for the next video (its mysterious serial number: M100C), which is currently being shot and edited.

Our public is global (yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!), thanks to the video’s impact, but it is of course made of a strong French core, and another (slightly less strong…) European part, for we have toured a lot in Europe. Our average fan is of the same age as the usual fan of symphonic metal and female-fronted metal, which is the age of maturity, and intelligence…

3. Since the latest album Ipso Facto (2015), has there been changes?

Trump’s arrival, followed by Macron’s, the fall of the Islamic State… Otherwise, an old French president would have summarized this with his “change with continuity” motto. More specifically, this album is blunter, certainly less progressive.

Furthermore, even if the previous albums had sometimes been birthed with a tiny amount of pain and compromises from all of us, this one was born with a renewed harmony.

We have now been working together for four years, and we know each other perfectly, we complete each other perfectly; this understanding makes things easier, because we all know what can be accepted by the others, and what will not. This helped us a lot during all the writing phase, where sharing was paramount.

Working like this was great (we still fought each other a little bit… because even if we need to have some ego clash, Elyose can’t be turned into a four-sided boxing ring (which makes sense for a ring… even if a ring is round by definition … this is giving me a headache…)).

4. What is your current “live” activity?

In November, we toured in Europe for 8 dates, with The Birthday Massacre (a great discovery for me…), Sirenia, and the Canadians from The Agonist. Now, at the end of the year, we are going along for three European dates (London, Paris, and Weert in the Netherlands) with the tour of Angel Nation and Phantom Elite, which are two excellent bands, the former British and the latter Dutch. Other dates are already being scheduled from 2018 and will be announced/confirmed…

5. Some questions about your next album:

What is its status?

As previously announced, it is currently being mixed, at the end of 2017, we are proud to say that our fans were the ones to finance it through a crowdfunding campaign. We are probably going to stay independent. There are wonderful tools today for us to use in marketing.

Who were the guests?

The guests were Mark Jansen (Epica, Mayan), Raf Pener (Tank), Flo Lemonnier (Far Away) and Aurélien Fouet-Barak (Assent). They were all singing: the first three did growls, and Aurélien was rapping. Those who come to see us live already know Flo, who is our live singer.

Which song(s) will get to represent the new album?

The one we chose for our second video: “Mes 100 ciels”.

6. You have hired a crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo; what were the main reasons?

Because the music business model has fundamentally changed these days. In older times, record companies were financing all the creative process of artists (recording, printing, distribution) and concerts were a showcase for the sale of albums.

Nowadays, all sorts of bands are sprouting everywhere, and the music industry almost doesn’t take any risks anymore, doesn’t invest into bands like ours, for fear of failure, and because albums are now the siren call to bring the audience into the concert venues.

Even if the cost of video recording and production has reduced a lot since the last twenty-thirty years, it has become more reliant on the artists themselves, which forces them to do a lot of the heavy lifting.

Asking for help to grow from the fanbase implies that:

The audience is more invested into the band success,

The band can work under the best conditions (for the album and video production),

The band is assured to be paid in advance with indirect CD preorders from contributors,

What was lost before has been found again, now that music has almost become free (personally, when I appreciate a band, I always buy their CD so that I participate to its production – this is a modest contribution, but still huge compared to those who only download the music on Russian websites…).

What was the financial result?

We have reached our goal with a little more than 8000 € received.

Would you do the same thing for the next album?

It is highly likely. It’s wonderful that we can be produced by our own fans today, and to have a direct relationship with them.

7. Other topics:

What are the best means to get your news and to know more about each of you?

This is only my personal opinion: I’ve never been into his kind of powerfully testosterone-y singing, nor into his tough big guy persona; but he still was a great artist who did wonderful shows and had a dozen of cult songs (l’Envie, Allumer le feu, De l’amour, …), with some of them written by some of the greatest and influential French writers (Goldmann, Berger, …). He’s like the Eiffel Tower of French rock, even if you might not find the tower beautiful…

8. Free space for the other bandmates to speak!

Pat : stay true Evil.

Thanks to all of you for your answers and for the time spent.

Happy new year, until we get to listen to you (new album in 2018) and to see you (gigs and a new video in 2018)…